Wednesday, 3 January 2018

Pumpkin, Black-Eyed Bean and Coconut Curry

I'm trying to include more vegetables in my diet this January by replacing my animal rich diet with vegetables and attempting to eat more vegetarian based meals. One of my favourite vegetarian dishes is making a vegetarian curry following a fridge raid of vegetables that had a better life but need to be cooked quickly. This recipe hails from my latest addition to my cookbook collection, Fresh India by Meera Sodha. I opted to use butternut squash rather than pumpkin as this features weekly on my shopping list. The rest of the ingredients for this curry, I had knocking about in the fridge/cupboards. What I found really interesting is the use of roasting butternut squash. It made the curry more earthy and as the butternut squash is naturally sweet, there was a slight sweet tang. The curry was moderately spiced, there was certainly a kick to the curry with the use of chilli. I served with coconut flavoured curry with corn (cornmeal based) roti, the recipe is also included in this book.

Ingredients

Serves 4 as a main course

1.2kg pumpkin or squash

1 tablespoon garam masala

salt and black pepper

coconut or rapessed oil

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

2 green chillies, slit lengthways

1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced

3 cloves of garlic

1 x 400g tin of black-eyed beans, drained

150g ripe tomatoes, cut into wedges

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 x 400ml coconut milk.

Method

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas mark 6 and line two baking trays with foil. Cut the pumpkin in half, scoop out and discard the seeds, then cut it into crescents around 2cm at widest part. Transfer to a big bowl, drizzle with oil, and sprinkle with garam masala, 1 teaspoon of sale and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. Toss to coat evenly, ten arrange in a single layer. Roast for 30 minutes, or until soft and tender.

Meanwhile, put 2 tablespoons of oil into a large lidded frying pan over a medium heat and when hot, add the mustard seeds. When they pop, add the slit green chilies and the onion. Cook for 12 minutes, or until the onion is soft and golden then add the garlic. Cook for another couple of minutes, then add the drained beans and stir to mix together. Add the tomatoes and cook for a few more minutes until soft and jammy around the edges.

Next, add the turmeric, 1/3 teaspoon of black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and the coconut milk. Tip the roasted pumpkin into the pan and stir to mix. Cover with the lid and leave to heat through for 5 minutes. Check the salt and chilli, adjusting if you wish, then transfer to a serving dish.